In the early 2000s, the Post Office rolled out
Horizon, new accounting and point-of-sale software developed and maintained by
Fujitsu, to all its branches and sub-post offices. It arrived at Craig-y-Don in October 2000 and problems emerged almost immediately. By December 2000 the system was showing an unexplained £6,000 shortfall, which was eventually reduced to about £1,000. Bates complained repeatedly to Post Office management that the Horizon system was unreliable, that its reporting facilities did not allow tracing of events behind shortfalls, and that it was wrong that operators were obliged to make good on shortfalls caused by the software. Over a two-year period he and his staff made 507 calls to the Post Office helpline, 85 of which related to Horizon. His contract was terminated with no reason given in November 2003. Although he was not prosecuted, he lost the £65,000 which he had invested in the business. In April 2024, when giving evidence at the Horizon IT public inquiry, Bates was shown internal Post Office documents in which his termination was said to be due to him being "unmanageable" and which referred to him as someone who "struggled with accounting".
Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd Represented by solicitor James Hartley from the Yorkshire firm Freeths and a team of barristers under Patrick Green of Henderson Chambers, subpostmasters obtained funding for their case against the Post Office from litigation funders Therium. Bates and forensic accountant Kay Linnell formed a steering group to lead 555 claimants in the case
Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, which was heard under a
group litigation order (GLO). Following the settlement, Bates crowdfunded £98,000 to obtain legal advice to submit a claim to the
Parliamentary Ombudsman, asking the government to reimburse the legal costs of the group litigants and provide additional compensation. The Horizon judgment paved the way for convicted subpostmasters to have their convictions quashed.
Inquiry In September 2020, the government set up an independent inquiry, chaired by retired
High Court judge Sir
Wyn Williams, into the Horizon scandal. Bates and the JFSA refused to co-operate until the inquiry was converted into a statutory
public inquiry the following year. Bates gave evidence at the inquiry for the first time on 9 April 2024. == Dramatisation ==